About Mae

Mae Lu is a Canada-born, So-Cal-raised Asian American 30 Something, living a dream with her hubby & dog in the magical kingdom of Hawaii.

This red-lipstick aficionado designs websites for a living and runs a fledgling lifestyle YouTube Channel in her spare time. On the weekends, if she's not filming, you can find her behind the lens of her Sony A6000, shooting scenery in Hawaii, hiking the hills and ridges of her beloved island home, or chasing the perfect sunset.

Why "thereafterish."? Because "and they lived happily ever thereafter" is just half of every story, and this is mine.

The thing about being a style blogger is that, like the infamous Refinery29 flowchart stipulated, to be “star” material, you either have a brilliant photographer boyfriend, or you’re a champion with the self-timer. If you have neither talented, artsy boyfriend, or self-timing skills, the result is awkward, unflattering style photos of an what would have been otherwise a really good outfit.

My husband, an extraordinary photographer, is uncannily unskilled at capturing people. His portraiture always results in me wrestling the camera from his grasp and playing with the self-timer, the camera precariously balanced on a pile of hardcover books or a clock as a make-shift tripod.

Whenever I have people take my photo, I hate having to shout, get “take it portrait, get me full frame, from eye level” amongst other various instructions. With the many directions I yell from in front of the lens, it’s easier to just take the picture myself, rather than having to tell people how to take a photo. You think it would be kind of indicative of how to take the photo from the mere fact that we’re taking “outfit shots”. But no, time and again, the shoes are missing, it’s taken from an unflattering upward angle (it works with buildings, not people!), or it’s taken mid-blink or mid-art-directing with my mouth gaping open like a hungry fish.

Usually if I bark, “get the shoes!” it gets the job done.

Not necessarily captured well, or nicely, but it at least results in a full-length shot. Which, given my non-possession of a talented portrait photographer as a boyfriend with endless amounts of freetime (honestly, where do these fashion bloggers get these men? And where in the hell do these people have all this TIME to shoot these editorial like city shots? Don’t they have jobs?), I have photos like these… a good outfit gone wrong due to awkward posing and shooting.

When I told N about the horrible composition of the shots, he heaved his arms up in frustration and exclaimed, “I’m NEVER taking photos of you or other people again!”

I guess you can leave that part to me. I’m rather handy with the remote now.

When I told him to “get the shoes”, being the facetious a-hole he can be, he literally got my shoes.

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About Mae

Mae Lu is a Canada-born, So-Cal-raised Asian American 30 Something, living a dream with her hubby & dog in the magical kingdom of Hawaii.

This red-lipstick aficionado designs websites for a living and runs a fledgling lifestyle YouTube Channel in her spare time. On the weekends, if she's not filming, you can find her behind the lens of her Sony A6000, shooting scenery in Hawaii, hiking the hills and ridges of her beloved island home, or chasing the perfect sunset.

Why "thereafterish."? Because "and they lived happily ever thereafter" is just half of every story, and this is mine.